FRENCH PATRIOTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25579, 5 July 1944, Page 5

FRENCH PATRIOTS

ACTIVITIES INCREASING (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, July 4 French patriots have held up a complete German panzer division which set out from Toulouse on June 6 for Normandy, 400 miles away, and has not yet arrived at its destination. This is reported ,in a communique from the French Ministry of the Interior in Algiers. The communique .adds that the engagement of this armoured division gives a new indication of the strength of the patriots. In one part of Central France all rail traffic has been suspended. Sabotage at the Paris marshalling yards has reached such proportions that the Germans no longer attempt to repair the damage. French forces of the interior have launched an offensive in areas from which the Germans might draw reserves. There is bitter fighting in Brittany. Patriots recently captured and held for two days Barcelonette, a keypoint in the south-east of France on the route to the Riviera. . The Daily Express correspondent on the Franco-Spanish frontier says- “ Marshal Rommel, alarmed by patriot activities, ordered mass arrests in Southern and Western France before he left to take over the command of the Normandy forces. In certain districts all men between the ages of 16 and 70 were arrested. A number of Mediterranean coastal villages wer: completely evacuated, including Port Vendres, Colioure, and Banyule.”